Con-con Meetings End, Committee to Prepare Proposals
Arlee: With the last of the Con Con district meetings winding up this weekend (Feb. 28 and March 1), the Constitutional Committee faces the difficult task of sifting hundreds of ideas and notions into a concrete constitutional proposal. The committee has an April 5 deadline to finish their business and deliver their draft to the Tribal Council.
The ten member committee began a schedule of six district meetings early last month to find out what changes, if any, the people of the tribe wanted in the 39 year old constitution. The ten articles of the constitution, the by-laws and amendments have been extensively reviewed in the four meetings held thus far (Ronan and Elmo met as Char-Koosta went to press). Virtually hundreds of opinions and suggestions have been recorded by the committee and from these, and the work of the committee
members themselves, a draft proposal must be completed within a month. The proposal will be submitted to the Council during the second quarterly Tribal Council meeting at the Dixon gym, April 5.
The areas most commonly discussed at district meetings and where change seems to
have the most support are: . Law and Order and legal jurisdiction....enrollment procedures ...elections and government... and administration of natural resources, especially the forests Law and Order has been one of the hottest issues at the district meetings. Many people feel that concurrent jurisdiction
has stuck Indians between a resentful state court system and an inept tribal court. Some say it is hard for an Indian to get just treatment either way.
At the Arlee Con-Con meeting, Kevin Howlett, Arlee, said that tribal court snould not only be concerned with trying _(cont. on page 3)_
Doing Something About Protecting Tribal Lands
Council Makes Jocko Arlee Indians Want
Southfork A Wilderness Missions Preserved
Arlee: There will be no more logging or development of any kind in the tribal hunting, fishing and gathering area of the southfork of the Jocko River. The ban will also exclude the proposed construction of two potent Montana Power transmission lines across the area.
The large creek basin in the south east corner of the reservation was set aside for the exclusive cultural and recreational use of tribal members in 19 6 8. However, the area was not taken out of the forestry schedule and since it was restricted, there have been several logging projects including the one-million board feet Burned Cabin project which ended last year.
There is also a small, 230 kilavolt (KV) power transmission line which bisects the
lower end of the southfork drainage one mile north of Yellow Lake. The current line presently runs from the Montana Power generating plant at Colstrip to the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) terminal at Hot Springs. The utility has proposed to add two more large lines to the right of way. The two new lines would carry 500 KWeach and, together, would be powerful enough to meet the requirements of about 5,000,000 people; or a residential area about the size of greater Seattle.
There has been serious environmental objection to the project over the radiant energy thrown out of the lines known
Arlee: Tribal members attending a Constitutional Convention meeting in Arlee February 22, voted unanimously to stop all logging operations in the Mission Mountains.
The vote was taken after tribal member Richard Orton, Arlee, asked the Con-Con committee if there was any way a new constitution could include a provision for undeveloped wilderness areas on the reservation. Seventeen of the 35 persons at the meeting favored such a provision...there were no votes against the wilderness concept.
Orton and several other tribal members have drafted a petition calling for a tribal refer-
as "corona: Very little is known**10"™ °n tne Mission logging about the effects of corona... issue- The petition reads: the constant discharge of elec- "We the undersigned mem-trical power from the lines...on bers of the Confederated Salish (next page) Kootenai Tribes do hereby
state that we are opposed to any logging in the Mission Mountains on the Flathead Indian Reservation."
In addition to the referendum, the group said it would seek other ways of halting logging on the Missions. They asked the people attending the Arlee meeting to support their petition and asked the Committee if it would be possible to include a Mission Mountain "environmental pact" in their constitutional proposals. The group also said it would propose the Mission wilderness concept to the Tribal Council.
Although most persons in the Arlee audience agreed with the principle of halting logging in the Mission, some felt that most people in the tribe wanted the money more than the mountains. Johnny Arlee, of (next page)